Conventionally, using, for example, a personal computer that is equipped in each home, access is had to a home page for use for on-line shopping via an Internet communication network. And, an order to purchase goods that have been introduced at the home page is made. By purchasing goods through the utilization of the on-line shopping, the user can purchase various kinds of merchandise in the state of staying in his home.
The methods for payment of the price of the goods the user has made his order to buy on this on-line shopping generally include the following. The method of using a credit card, the method of paying cash in exchange for a receipt when the goods have been delivered, and the method of making remittance through the use of a bank account.
By the way, the above-described conventional method for payment on the on-line shopping was in any case basically the one in which the goods-item was paid for at one time in one lump sum. Therefore, the user had the difficulty of freely choosing the terms of payment such as choosing a payment on the easy payment plan. When using a credit card, there is also a case where the user can adopt an easy payment plan that is determined in advance by the credit-card operating company. But there was the problem that the user could only adopt a pre-determined easy payment plan. Also, in case the user had no such a credit card, there was also the problem of any credit card being impossible to utilize.
Ordinarily, on the side of a company that performs its easy payment plan execution business such as an easy payment business (in this specification this company is defined as being a credit company), it needs to have a user, who desires to make his easy payment, write necessary particulars into a written contract for credit. For this reason, so long as concerning the Internet process including a process for on-line shopping, the exchange of the contract in writing between the both parties was difficult. This resulted in a failure to realize the easy payment plan.
Also, even in case performing the easy payment plan through the use of a credit card, the user simply performs the operation of selecting the easy payment on the screen of his computer with respect to which he performs his purchasing operation. As a result, there was the problem that how exactly the user had actually to pay was unknown to him until he received a bill for the use of the credit card. Similarly, in the case of a credit contract made by the user with a credit company, the amounts billed widely vary according to the payment conditions. Therefore, when requesting the payment on-credit during the on-line shopping, the user had a desire to know the sum total of the amounts billed beforehand.
Further, when performing the on-line shopping by using a computer set (hereinafter referred to as “a computer apparatus”), the user needs to input with regard to many particulars including name, address, and payment conditions. This raised the problem that the user's purchasing operation required a large amount of time.